Over two thirds of the world's population live in areas that lack a structured addressing system. Traditional address systems require several fields to identify a unique address (street name, street number, street type, city state zip code) and have proven difficult to update and maintain as cities grow and political boundaries are redrawn. Furthermore, the lack of a unique address key has impeded the electronic updates of addresses to end-users. Given the amount of data required to define an address, address information is not ideal for the digital world. An address requires at a minimum street name, number, city, state, and zip code.
Additionally, developing countries that have lapsed or have poor addressing systems may have little or no access to modern localized services and substandard postal/parcel delivery. This affects not only personal communications, but also business and government communications. Government services such as property permitting services, tax administration and collection, school districting, health system managements, trash collection and emergency services also suffer from poor addressing systems. Finally the lack of proper addressing system also hinders proper census and further penetration of financial and other services to mid to lower income people.
In view of the foregoing, it may be understood that there may be significant problems and shortcomings associated with current structured addressing technologies.